What Cocktails Can I Make With What I Have?
More than you think.
Most classic cocktails belong to one of five families, and each family is a simple ratio. Learn the ratios and the bottles on your shelf stop being a random collection and start being a menu.
1. The sour: spirit, citrus, sweet
2 oz spirit, ¾ oz fresh lemon or lime juice, ¾ oz simple syrup. Shake hard with ice and strain.
This one ratio gives you a Daiquiri with rum and lime, a Whiskey Sour with bourbon and lemon, and a Gimlet with gin and lime. Swap the syrup for agave and use tequila, and you have a Tommy's Margarita. If you own one bottle of spirit, a lemon or lime and some sugar, you can make a sour tonight.
2. The Old Fashioned: spirit, sugar, bitters
2 oz spirit, ¼ oz simple syrup, 2 dashes of bitters. Stir over ice and finish with a strip of citrus peel.
Bourbon and rye are the classic choices. The same build works with aged rum or an aged tequila, and each one tastes like a different drink. A bottle of Angostura bitters lasts for years and is the best value purchase a home bar can make.
3. The highball: spirit and bubbles
2 oz spirit, 4 oz chilled sparkling mixer. Build it in a tall glass full of ice.
Gin and tonic, whiskey and soda, vodka with ginger beer and lime for a Moscow Mule, tequila with grapefruit soda and lime for a Paloma. Highballs forgive imprecise pours, which makes them a good place to start.
4. Spirit and vermouth
2 oz spirit, 1 oz vermouth, a dash or two of bitters. Stir with ice until very cold and strain.
Rye or bourbon with sweet vermouth and Angostura is a Manhattan. Gin with dry vermouth is a Martini, and you can adjust the vermouth to taste. Keep opened vermouth in the fridge, where it stays fresh for a month or two.
5. Equal parts
1 oz each of three ingredients. Stir over ice.
Gin, Campari and sweet vermouth make a Negroni. Replace the gin with bourbon and it becomes a Boulevardier. Equal parts drinks are easy to remember and easy to scale for guests.
Working from what you own
Look at your shelf with those five families in mind:
- One spirit and some citrus: a sour or a highball.
- A whiskey and a bottle of bitters: an Old Fashioned.
- A spirit and a vermouth: a Manhattan or a Martini.
- Gin, Campari and sweet vermouth: a Negroni, and you are one swap away from several of its relatives.
Substitutions within a family usually work. Honey syrup can stand in for simple syrup, lemon for lime, one whiskey for another. The drink changes character and stays balanced, because the ratio is doing the work.
Where I come in
The families get you to the classics. The interesting drinks sit in between them, in the combinations specific to your shelf: the amaro someone gave you, the half bottle of elderflower liqueur, the mint on the windowsill.
Tell me which bottles, fresh ingredients and bar tools you have, and I'll design an original cocktail around them, with a name, measurements and step-by-step instructions. Three bottles are enough to begin.